According to the State of Colorado’s June 30, 2011 “HIT News Bulletin” CORHIO announced that Centura Health, the largest health system in the state has signed an agreement to participate in CORHIO’s Health Information Exchange (HIE). With the addition of Centura CORHIO now has 25 hospitals, five mental health centers, and more than 250 office-based physicians participating in the HIE.
In addition, Alpine Urology is scheduled to “go live” on CORHIO’s network in August. With four physician offices in the state, Alpine is the first physician practice in Colorado to connect their EHR to CORHIO’s HIE.
Also, later in 2011, the CORHIO network is scheduled to be upgraded to include patient medication lists, information on allergies and immunizations, as well as laboratory and imaging orders. Right now, the HIE network provides access to lab tests and pathology results, x-rays, MRIs and other imaging reports, and physician transcription reports.
Legislation to create an all-payer database went into effect in 2010 and at that time, an advisory committee was created to guide the development and use of the database for the “Center for Improving Value in Health Care” (CIVHC). In order to establish the means to submit medical and pharmacy claims plus eligibility and provider data to the All-Payer Claims Database, the Executive Director of the state’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) will be promulgating rules.
Later this month, CORHIO will assist HCPF as the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program is implemented. Under the terms of the agreement with HCPF, CORHIO will be responsible for program coordination and will provide education and communications.
The CO-REC has signed up more than 2,000 providers for no cost services and the program is expected to reach capacity by the end of July. Seven providers have already received their Medicare Attestation checks. Twenty four of the 28 Critical Access Hospitals are actively pursuing meaningful use by working with CO-REC.
Some other key updates:
• Colorado submitted the State Medicaid Health Information Technology Plan (SMHP) to CMS however, an updated SMHP will be submitted by August 2011
• The Pharmacy Automatic Prior Authorization System will reduce the decision time needed to approve all pharmacy and physical/dental services requiring prior authorization. The contractor has been selected and the system will be implemented in the fall
• The Accountable Care Collaborative will provide detailed analytical reporting and support to reduce costs and improve outcomes. The Statewide Data Analytics Contractor (Treo) is expected to start reporting this summer
• The pilot for the Colorado Immunization Information System has been completed with new system changes scheduled to go live by the end of the summer
• The Rehabilitation Information System for Employment Implementation is being implemented with a deployment date of September 2012
